“Remember, Aiden,” the wise monk said, “never doubt in the darkness that which you believed in the light.”Īiden’s faith never falters from one disaster to another: their ship pushed off course in a black, howling gale attacked by Sea Wolves taken prisoner and sold as a slave to a Viking king. Though unaware of the true nature of Aiden’s unhappiness, Ruadh reminds him that this journey, known as the White Martyrdom, will be a spiritual test as well as a physical one. His wretchedness does not go unnoticed by his anamcara, the priest and “soul friend” “responsible for his spiritual health and progress”.

“Sure, I am one of those wretched souls who see the future in dreams,” he said, “and my dreams are never wrong.” humble wilful spirit”.īut before one foot is set upon the path of the great pilgrimage, Aiden’s happiness is dashed by a vision of his own death in the great city. He was “first to rise and last to sleep” and “With a true and contrite heart. To be one of the chosen, he had proved he was “second to none in devotion”. Among that number was a young priest and scribe, Aiden mac Cainnech. Each one had been carefully selected to be part of a pilgrimage to Constantinople, the City of Gold, bearing a great gift to the Holy Emperor of Rome. Thirteen monks of the Cele De left the Irish abbey of Cennanus na Rig at the farthest reaches of the Holy Roman Empire. Soon there would be nothing left – soon not even the shadows would remain, and the darkness would be complete. the shining verity of my memory was swiftly receding, replaced by emptiness, by a gathering gloom of shadows moving in an ever-increasing void. “The wounded animal that was my heart sickened and began devouring itself in its misery.

Byzantium by Stephen R. Lawhead